Just Another Victim of the FAYZ
by emilywalrus
Summary: Redd Lockwood lives in the FAYZ. She works for Quinn. She's got a pitiful crush on Sam. Nobody really needs or cares about her. She's a nobody. Until something changes and she's wanted by everyone. Especially Drake.
1. Chapter 1

**Heyy heyy heyy! Hope you like my story! Please PLEASE review **** Sorry if I don't update in a long time I don't enjoy staring at my computer for a long time… But I would REALLY like to thank SenseandCommon for the basic idea of writing this story!**

**You can check out her story My Four Best Friends and read that! Thanks, and remember…REVIEW**

Hi, I'm Redd Lockwood. I'm 13 years old and I live in Perdido Beach, California. The FAYZ. "My" house is on Pacific Boulevard and I live, well, by myself. My actual house that I lived in before the FAYZ was on Sherman and was burned down when Zil and his Idiot Crew wasted the precious gas by starting a pointless fire. But most of them are dead now so whatever. I had a brother who was almost 15 but one of those SUV sized bugs ate him. I don't really like to talk about that.

Anyway, I don't really play a big part in the FAYZ. I'm not Sam or Edilio or Astrid or even Jack. But I'm not dead yet, so that's something. I live in a little one story that only has a few broken windows. It's close to the Plaza when I need something, but far enough away that the big ugly battles usually don't get to close to me.

I haven't ever gotten into any big trouble, so life has been easier on me. Ever since the power went off. It made me really see how much humans rely on energy. I had been really "green" before the FAYZ, always recycling, reducing energy use, etc etc. Now that doesn't really matter.

I eat what I can and get by, I guess. I had a cat but I have no idea what happened to it. I've made a few friends since the beginning of the FAYZ. Not many, but some. My old friends are kind of stupid. They aren't any help during the troubles of the FAYZ. They probably live together on the other side of town. Maybe they transferred over to Coates. Maybe they're dead. I don't know.

I have a crush on Sam. A pretty big one. I've only met him in person once. It was like meeting a celebrity. I guess he kind of is one here. Anyway, it doesn't matter. I work for Quinn now. I'm on his fishing crew. I don't live in that big fishing crew house though, I wouldn't really like living with a bunch of guys. That would be really awkward.

It was a little before dawn. I needed to get to the marina. I walked out of my house and onto the empty streets. Everyone was still asleep. Probably having nightmares. I kept walking straight on Pacific to get to the marina. On the way, I passed Grant Street. Someone was walking down the street, towards me. I realized they were probably just walking back to where they came from. Anyhow, I reached into my belt for my knife. I cursed quietly. It was still in my room. Nobody walked the streets of the FAYZ without a weapon, that was a bad mistake. I just kept walking. Running, almost.

"Hey, Redd. Wait up."

What the heck? Who was that? Still, she stopped walking and waited. Barely anybody knew my name. And the person didn't look familiar. Wait…was that…?

"Sorry if I scared you. It's just me, Sam."

It was Sam. Holy cow, holy cow, holy cow. Breathe, breathe, breathe. "Hey Sam. What's up?" I hope that came out smoother than it felt.

"I was just wondering if you would give Quinn a message for me."

Oh.

"Okay, what is it?"

"Just tell him I need him to come to the town hall as soon as possible. We're having, like, a meeting. I think. That's what Albert told me. You can come too." Sam said.

Oh! "Kay, I'll tell him. What are you doing? It's barely dawn." I asked him.

"Just making the rounds for the day. I do this all the time. Checking out everything, making sure there's no dead bodies laying around." He forced a smile.

I wanted to kiss him. He was right there. That would be the stupidest thing that I could ever do. Astrid would have my head. "Okay, well I better get goin'. Quinn's waiting for me." I don't want to go.

"Bye, see you later I guess." He replied.

"Bye." I love you.

Sam walked off; probably back to Astrid's house. I sighed. That was fun! I kept walking until I got to the marina. Sitting on the dock was only one person. It was Quinn. Usually they were all here by the time I arrived.

"Where is everyone?" I wondered aloud.

Quinn jumped and turned. Seeing it was me he relaxed. "They went to Ralph's to get food for the day." I sat next to him, our legs hanging off the dock and skimming the salty blue water. "Did you get here okay? Any trouble?" Quinn usually asked this question in the morning.

"Yeah, I ran into Sam actually." I replied. Quinn turned his head to look back out over the ocean.

"Did he say anything? Did he look bad? I'm worried about him." Quinn was a really caring person. He was always asking if you were okay. He genuinely did look worried about Sam.

"He looked as fine as all of us. But hey, he gave me a message for you." I said. "He said to tell you that there's a meeting in the town hall and to go after we finished fishing. I'm coming too. Something that Albert wants to talk about."

Quinn snorted. He didn't like Albert. "Well, at least you're coming with me. I hate meetings. Nobody asks for my opinion. I shouldn't even go." He muttered.

"Of course you're going. If you don't Sam will think I didn't do my job."

Quinn raised his eyebrows and looked at me. "Does Redd have a little crush on Sammy boy?" he mocked.

I shoved him. "No!" I lied. I'm not a very good liar though. My cheeks turned cherry red. Oh, cherries. Never mind, tomato red. Quinn grinned. "Well who doesn't? In my defense, it's not that unusual." I looked away.

Just on time, the rest of the crew showed up. I jumped up. Quinn laughed. "Let's go! We're a little late."

Frog loaded the food into the boat that Quinn would be in. Frog was a nice guy. He was really skinny and tall before the FAYZ, and since the FAYZ made everybody skinnier, he was like, a twig. Everybody called him frog because he loves frogs.

A blonde named Shell climbed into the boat first. "Alright come on, let's go!" I climbed into the lead boat, one that sat three. They used three boats in all. The one that I was in, that sat three and then two others that sat four. So there were eleven fishers for the entire Perdido Beach. I fish with Quinn and Penelope.

Everybody climbed in their boats with the fishing gear to last them for the day. Quinn reached over to untie the ropes from the dock, and we were off. Penelope was a talker. She always talked. We were lucky to get a few moments of silence. She was short with cropped red hair and freckles.

"I wonder if we'll catch anything big today. Like another shark. That would be good because Albert didn't even pick up the last shark we caught so we need to catch another one." And the nonstop chatter started. Penelope was facing the opposite direction of Quinn and I, and Quinn's eyes widened and he hid a smile. Penelope had always annoyed Quinn but he put up with it.

"We have to dock early today, at least I do. Got to go to the town hall for Sam. I mean Albert. But you guys can keep fishing after we leave." Quinn yelled to the crew. Various people nodded. I re-gripped my paddle. After gas had gotten so low, we had to start using paddles to row ourselves. It wasn't fun, but it was our only option. Once we got out far enough, Quinn handed Penelope a net and me a rod. Everyone hated using the nets and when Penelope complained, Quinn turned around and snickered.

I shoved him and muttered, "You're so mean," sarcastically.

He smiled. "I know."

I cast my line into the water after baiting it and watched the little bobber bob in the ripples. This was the best time of day for fishing. When the sun rose, it warmed the top of the water and fish went deeper. After about 5 minutes, I felt a tug and watched my bobber go under water about 2 inches. Not a very big fish. Anyhow, I started tugging and reeling in my catch. I lifted it into the boat. It was probably about a foot across and weighed maybe 8 pounds.

"Can I switch now?" Penelope whined from the other side.

Quinn laughed. "Yeah, here you use the rod I'll do the nets." I was relieved that he didn't make me do them. He reached over and switched out the two.


	2. Chapter 2

**Hey everybody thanks for reading! This chappie is like…AMAZING! Hahahahaha just kidding :P but it is pretty good…**

**Thank you to those who reviewed chappie one! And to firegirl65…DRAKE'S IN THIS CHAPPIE! Enjoy…..and remember….REVIEW :D**

I leaned out as far as I could and attached the rope to the dock. We had had a good fishing day, and had come back in after lunch. Penelope had switched into another boat while Quinn and I had come back in for the meeting.

"Why am I coming?" I wondered out loud once we had gotten on the dock and started walking towards the plaza.

"Sam told you too."

"I know, but why did he tell me too? It's not like I'm very important." I argued.

"Well, it's probably some thing about jobs because I'm supposed to come, so maybe you're there to back me up." Quinn suggested.

I nodded. I was actually really excited to go. I would get to see Sam again. I liked it more when Sam was in charge, not Albert. Albert was way too cocky for me, and I think that Sam had lots of good ideas. Don't get me wrong, Albert has great ideas, but Sam is the one who got us all started. I would always be loyal to Sam.

And he's hot…

Quinn and I walked into the plaza. Astrid was standing outside the town hall entrance. When we reached her, she said "Hey guys. Just head upstairs into the mayor's office. The meeting is in there." Then she saw me. "Um, who are you?" she asked, not really trying to hide the suspicion in her voice. Her eyes flicked to Quinn. Did she think we were…together?

Before she could suspect anything more, I said "I'm Redd. I work for Quinn and Sam told me to come."

Astrid's icy eyes narrowed. "Okay…" She followed us up the stairs to the mayor's office. It was pretty awkward. I could tell she was watching me from behind. What was wrong with me?

Quinn found the office and turned the brass knob. We all walked in. It was a little cramped with everyone there. Sam was sitting stiffly on one of the two couches, and Astrid took a seat next to him. Howard and Ellen took seats in chairs that had been dragged from another room. Brianna and Dahra sat together on the other couch. Lana looked uncomfortable but sat as far away from Astrid as possible on the couch. Edilio sat on the edge of the mayor's desk. That left Albert, who was, of course, in the mayor's chair behind the big desk.

Quinn and I just sat on the floor. Yeah, real comfortable.

"So. I think everyone's here." Sam muttered awkwardly. AHHHHHH! Sam was sitting right there! Eeep.

Albert gave Sam a look. "Yes, thank you for pointing out the obvious Sam."

"No problem." Sam replied.

Quinn chuckled. "Okay, so this meeting is about business." Albert said. "Everything has been running pretty well, but I wanted to check in with everybody and make sure that nobody had any problems."

"You mean besides the fact that we have no food, water, electricity or adults? And there's an insane guy with a whip for an arm that wants to kill everybody on the loose? Yup, everything is just _dandy_." Brianna snorted.

Albert rubbed his face with one hand in frustration. "Thank you Brianna for bringing everybody's moods down. Anyways, that's not what I meant."

"We know what you meant Albert." Edilio supported.

Quinn spoke up. "We fishers need more food for our fishing days. And you need to make sure you come get our catches that we put on the dock. There are some big ones that get spoiled because nobody comes to get them." I agreed with him. We used to just bring them to Albert ourselves, but Albert was usually "too busy" to do anything about us and he just decided it would be better if he sent some guys to get our fish.

Albert scratched something down on a piece of paper. "Anybody else?" he asked.

Howard spoke up. "My man needs more beer." He was taking about Orc.

"Shut up Howard. Why is he even here?" Lana snapped.

"If he doesn't come he'll tell Orc to smash us." Quinn muttered.

"Um, my workers and I are wondering what we are supposed to do when there's a fire because we don't have any water." Ellen asked.

"Good question." Astrid whispered to Sam. Sam slid his arm around her. A little flame of hate burned inside me.

"Yeah and I'm wondering what I'm supposed to do when there's no medicine left over." Dahra said, sounding icy.

"Okay, okay, all good questions. I'll write them down and think about it. Get back to you soon. Meeting adjourned." Albert said.

Everybody got up and started pushing out the door. "I didn't need to come." I whispered to Quinn once we got outside.

"Well, you wanted to see Sam." Quinn said, a little too loudly. Sam heard his name and whipped his head up.

"Yeah Quinn?" he asked.

"Nothin' brah." Quinn replied casually.

"You said my name."

"I was just telling Redd about how Albert uh…never mind." Haha, Quinn couldn't think of a lie.

Sam gave him a funny look. "Okay, well bye Quinn. Bye Redd." He smiled at me.

HOLD THE PHONE.

He smiled at me.

"Bye Sam." My eyelids were all fluttery. That's creepy.

Before anything else amazingly amazing could happen, Astrid grabbed his hand and they walked away.

Quinn moved his eyebrows up and down. "Snap." He said.

I shoved him. "Bye Quinn. See you in the morning, bright and early."

"Okay, bye."

I turned away from him down my street. Time to get some sleep, even if it's only a little. I walked into my house. Humming to myself, I lit a candle that illuminated the living room of the house.

I nearly screamed my head off.

The candle illuminated a chair that faced the window looking onto the front lawn.

A snake-like tentacle slithered that was resting on the ground started to move and slithered up into a person's lap.

"Hey Redd."

It was Drake.


	3. Chapter 3

**Hey EREBODY! I hope everybody's lives have been improved because of my STORY! :P**

**Yes I included Drake…didn't know he was so popular…heheheh…BUT I'll make sure to include him in the other chappies!**

**Please review! Feel free to recommend anything that you would like to happen….i'm open to ideas! PEACE**

HOLY DKFHEIQHVNPEGOQUHOEGHFV! What? WHAAAAT? DRAKE?

"Um, hey." What was I doing? Drake was _sitting_ in my _living room._

Drake laughed. I nervously fake giggled in response. I guess my plan is to just act like I'm not scared. That usually frustrates people.

"So. How's your day been?" I asked him, keeping my voice as strong as I could.

"Oh, it's been good. You know, the usual."

"What's the usual?" I asked nervously.

"Killing, abusing or kidnapping people. Although I haven't done any of that today. Just a few lashes of this wonderful whip." He answered, sounding perfectly calm, of course.

I didn't know what to say. I was about to say cool, but that would be stupid. I was about to say, 'Oh that's too bad,' but that would be stupid. In the end, I just went with, "So…how do you know my name?"

He laughed again. Geez, this guy has one weird sense of humor. "I know a lot of things."

Okay, this is getting boring. "What do you want with me?" I didn't have any powers, no real connection to Sam (sadly) or Caine, and I certainly hadn't ever done anything to endanger anybody.

Drake, still sitting in the chair facing the window away from me, said "Like I mentioned before, I know a lot of things. A lot of things that you don't. I know something about you that you don't even know. How amazing am I?" He laughed at his own…amazingness?

"Well if I don't even know about it, then what can I do to help you?" Did that make sense?

"Look Little Redd, you're coming with me." He stood up and turned to face me. His sharky grin was gone, and his scary eyes looked serious. I stepped back a little, knocking into something sharp that stabbed into the back of my leg. I winced in pain but kept a poker face. "You know how this works," he continued. "I'm the bad guy, I steal away some innocent girl, and then someone like Sam comes and rescues you."

I almost laughed. If Sam came and rescued me right now, it would be a miracle. "What am I supposed to do for you? What's going to happen to me?" I asked.

"You'll know soon enough. Now come with me or you know what." He raised his slithering whip. It looked like it had a brain of its own, almost like it was staring at me with mean, black eyes.

I didn't know what to do. I had heard stories of how Sam had been whipped by Drake almost until he died. "Uh…um-okay. I- I'll come with you. But you can't hurt me. If you do, when I get my special little…thing, I'll kill you Drake." I stuttered. My voice shook when I said his name.

I though he would just laugh again, but he nodded seriously. Almost like he was scared. I hoped he was. "We should get going. Pack some stuff if you want. What time do you usually leave for the marina in the morning?" he asked me.

"Uh, before dawn."

"We'll leave now then. Don't want anyone asking where we are until we are way out of town." It was only about 5. We must be going far away.

"I don't have anything to pack." I muttered.

Drake snorted. "Good. We'll be walking so we can get farther if you don't have a load on your shoulders."

"Where are we going?" I dared to ask.

"We are going to see one of my friends." He sneered.

Drake has friends? I wondered as we walked out the back door. I was very nervous. My only hope was that someone brave would spot us as we escaped and run to get someone to rescue me. I wasn't going to risk getting whipped and beaten by Drake. I stumbled to keep up with him, as he was taken long, fast strides.

I thought about food. Would Drake feed me? What about water? Would we take any breaks, or just walk all day and night? I was scared. More scared than I had ever been in my life. More scared than when my parents disappeared and I was abandoned in an elevator, alone. Drake was a murderous killer, and he had kidnapped me.

It was night time. Early morning, maybe around three o'clock. Just as I had suspected, we had walked all night. Drake stole some water and food for us, but it wasn't much and I was ravenous. We were somewhere in the hills, past Coates. I hadn't talked to Drake at all. The only words he had growled were to tell me to hurry up.

"Drake. I'm stopping. And you'll have to stop with me." I built up the nerve to confront him.

He turned to me. I shrank back. I gritted my dirty teeth together and stared him straight in his hard, cold eyes. Surprisingly, he replied, "Fine. But you won't get much sleep."

I basically collapsed on the soft grass. Almost instantly I was asleep. The last thing I saw was Drake sitting, his back straight and turned to me, and the green ground. I knew he wasn't going to sleep. He'd probably keep watch. And to make matters worse, I had happy dreams about my parents and Sam and fishing, only to wake up to the nightmare that was my reality.


	4. Chapter 4

** Hey again! Hoped you liked the last chapter. If you have any criticism or suggestions, I'm open to them! And dooooooooooooooooon't forget…..REVIEW! it's not very hard, there's just a little button down there at the end of the chapter and you click it and write what you think and then WHOA! YOU REVIEWED! THANKS!**

Drake was asleep. That surprised me. I thought that thing didn't need sleep. I stood over him now. He just lay on his back. Arm and whip straight by his sides. He didn't look very comfortable, which made me a little happier. He looked less scary when he was asleep.

I had just woken up, and it was a little after dawn if I had to guess. The grass that covered the hills was starting to shine with the early morning sun. I could see a line of trees at the bottom of the hill we were on that started a new forest. It was really pretty actually, the sun rising. It turned the dark sky a new shade of blue and brought with it the freshness of a new day.

I wondered how long it would be until Drake woke up. I didn't know what to do. I guessed that when he woke up, we would just start walking again, which was not a happy thought.

"I'm awake." Drake said without opening his eyes. I jumped about five feet off the ground.

"Oh! Uh, okay, well, uh…" I stammered.

He stood up quickly, like he had never slept. "Well, let's leave." He said. His hair was a little ruffled from lying on the ground, and there were blades of grass stuck to the back of his shirt.

Realizing that I must look like that too, if not worse, I smoothed a hand over my ponytail and tried to get all the bumps out. "How long do we have?" I dared to ask.

Drake turned to me after stretching his arm/whip and popping his neck. He started to answer my question, then his eyes narrowed and he looked past me. "Who in the-"

It was a girl. Probably a little younger than I was. She was dirty, and looked like she hadn't had any food for a long time. She was running up to us. When she got closer, I realized that I had never seen her before. She looked a little surprised when she saw Drake's whip. That's when I realized that she had been living on her own.

"Who are you?" Drake growled in a deep voice.

"I-I'm Ra-Ray." She stuttered.

"Hi Ra-Ray." Drake mocked. "What do you want?" His face showed no expression.

Ray looked like she was going to pass out. "I've been on my own and haven't seen anybody for a long time." She managed to choke out between huge intakes of breath. "I need some help from somebody and you were the first people I found."  
>"Well, I can tell you need some help." Drake scoffed.<p>

"So do you have food?" Ray asked.

"Nope. And if we did, you wouldn't be having it. Now go away." He replied.

I felt sorry for her. It was true we didn't have any food, but surely we could do something. Then again, we didn't exactly have anything.

"Perdido Beach is that way." I said, pointing towards the direction we had come from, past the hills. "Go there and you will get some help." It was all I could do to help her.

"Thank you so much!" Ray replied, giving Drake one last glance and heading the way I pointed.

"I hope she makes it." I sighed.

Drake laughed. "Whatever." He smirked.

"Walk."

"Fine."

We started off again. Soon we reached the edge of the trees, and we entered them. The ground beneath us was different, covered with dead leaves and dirt. Little sunlight filtered in through the thick canopy of leaves. Every once and a while, a squirrel or some kind of animal would flit out across our path and up a tree. Drake whipped at them and laughed.

I was starting to get really hungry. Disgustingly enough, whenever I heard or saw some kind of animal, my stomach growled or my mouth started to water. Drake soon got annoyed with the noises of my stomach, and spoke up.

"Shut that thing up." He would say.

"How do you expect me to do that?"

"Eat something."

"Like what?" I yelled back.

"Fine then. I'll go get us some food." He replied.

So here I was, sitting on a rotting tree stump in the middle of a forest with no clue where I'm going being dragged along by some creepy teenager with a whip arm who doesn't feed me or let me sleep. What could go wrong?

I really didn't want to eat the rabbit Drake caught. Especially after he skinned it and put a stick through it that would hold it over the fire. But what other choice did I have? I was starving. After the rabbit was cooked, Drake handed me some. I took a deep breath and bit into it. It was disgusting in all ways, but it was food.

It had been a day since the gross tasting rabbit incident. Now, it was night time and Drake and I were staying in an actual building for the night. It was in a town we had arrived in a few hours ago. A town in a desert. _The _town in _the _desert. That's right; I was just a few miles away from the cave where it lives.

Now that I knew where we were going, Drake had to keep me in a locked room with no windows so I wouldn't escape. It didn't matter anyway. I had heard stories about what happens deep in that mine shaft where it lives. Now I would be a part of one of those stories, unless I died in there and couldn't tell anyone.

I was so scared. Tomorrow I would face it for some reason that I didn't know. Why did it want me? Why did Drake want me to face the Darkness?

** What did ya think? I HOPE REDD DOESN'T DIE! Please review!**


	5. Chapter 5

**Thanks to everyone who reviewed! I'll try to update more, but you know, it's summer, so I've been on vacation a lot! You won't find out why Drake wants Redd in this chapter, just for a heads up…But u will in the next one! YAY**

** This chappies a little shorta 2 btw **

** Oh and I changed my name from reptileCRAZY1013 to xPackLeader1013x :D**

The locked turned. He was coming to get me. It was late in the morning, probably nine o'clock. I hadn't slept at all last night, fearing that I would have terrible nightmares about what I was going to do today.

"Come on Redd." Drake's voice sounded from the other side of the door. Every time he unlocked the door I locked it again.

"I really don't want to! Why are you taking me? I'm going to die!"

"Maybe. Just let me come in. Let's get this over with." He didn't sound very excited to encounter the Darkness either.

Grudgingly, I backed away from the door so he could unlock the door and come in. When he opened he door, I was sitting on the ground cross-legged with my arms folded across my chest.

"Don't be a toddler." Drake hissed.

"Do you like going in there and speaking with it?"

"No. No, not really. Now let's go." He replied. If he didn't even like going, then he must think it was really important for me to go. "We have to get there before any coyotes start hunting. I don't feel like dealing with them."

Tears stung the back of my eyes. I was scared. But there wasn't any way around it. Getting up, I followed Drake out of the door. We passed back through the building we stayed in and walked out the front door.

There was a whole abandoned town here in the desert. I'd heard stories about how Hermit Jim's shack was out here by an abandoned town in the desert. I knew all the people who had been to meet the Darkness. Lana's story was the most popular though. If I wasn't missing anybody, Duck Zhang was the only one who has died in those caves. By the end of today I hope I'm not on that list.

"It's only about two miles from here." Drake explained.

"What about food?" I was starving again.

"I doubt we're going to find anything out here."

"Fine then I'll just starve." I snapped. Surprisingly, Drake didn't lash out at me with another rude comment.

Considering we were in the middle of a desert, you would think it would be pretty hot. But, you see, here in our little fishbowl the FAYZ, it didn't exactly change temperatures. It was always room temperature, like seventy-five degrees. So when the electricity went out, it wasn't a huge loss that we didn't have air conditioning.

Walking still made me thirsty though.

Ahead of us, the caves started to rise above the horizon. My bottom lip started to quiver. Drake looked ahead. "Here we are." He muttered.

He started to walk down towards and entrance in the rock, and I had no choice but to follow him. Just before I started to walk down the slope to the cave entrance, movement caught my eye. There was a dark figure moving to the left of me. A person?

"Um, Dra-" I stopped myself. What if this person was here to rescue me? If he/she was, I was _definitely _not telling Drake. He was ahead of me now, dealing with a coyote that had confronted him.

"Redd! Redd, hey it's me." The figure said. It was beside me, behind a rock.

I didn't recognize the voice at first. It sounded scruffy, definitely someone affected by the FAYZ. It was a deep voice too, a guy my age.

"Do I know you?" I whispered back.

"C'mon, you know who I am." He replied.

"Just tell me before Drake turns around!" I snapped.

"I'm rolling my eyes."

"Do you want to die? I don't!"

"Redd, it's me. Quinn."


	6. Chapter 6

**Hey hey heyyyyyyyyy! Thanks for reviewing, and plz keep it up! Sry I haven't updated but I've been on an ALASKAN CRUISE :D happiness! And the amount of free time I've had since school started has been….zero….**

**I hope I still have some READAS out there**

Quinn! I almost screamed in happiness. I wouldn't have to go into that horrible mine shaft after all!

"Okay listen. You're going to have to send Drake away somewhere as a distraction so we can get farther away without him chasing us. Any ideas?" Quinn said, still behind the rock.

I was twitching with excitement, but I forced myself to stay calm and think of an idea. "Okay I got one." I said after a minute. "Just stay behind the rock." I told Quinn. I moved forward to get closer to Drake so he could hear me. He had just finished dealing with the coyote and it had surprisingly gotten away alive.

"Alright let's go." He grunted when he saw me approaching. But I didn't follow him. I sat down. He saw me and slapped his forehead with his hand. "Get up!" he roared.

"I'm hungry. So go get me some food and I'll follow you." I said, beginning my plan.

After several minutes of arguing and insulting, I won. "Well, you're coming with me." He said.

I knew this would happen. So I said, "Actually I have to…have to…you know…go…"

Drake closed his eyes and whipped his tentacle thing across the face of a rock to take out some anger. "Okay, just go. I'm feeling especially nice. Not a good day for me. Just go. I'll hunt I guess." He said with a scowl on his face, heading off in the direction away from Quinn's boulder.

"Thank you!" I squeaked like one of Mary's-or whoever's- littlies. He turned his head to look at me strangely after the whole squeaking thing, but then continued off to hunt. I ran back to where Quinn was sitting on the dusty ground waiting for me.

He shot up as soon as I came behind the rock. "Let's go." He said, and we took off running into the desert.

We ran until we got into grass again. We ran until the sun no longer beat down on our backs. We ran until our mouths were so dry we could barely swallow. We ran for so long. Yet I didn't really get tired. My legs pumping back and forth, reflecting the sun back onto me. I sweat in buckets, and so did Quinn. We stopped twice for water. We finally stopped when we reached the edge of town, dizzy with heatstroke and dehydration. Funny, the journey had taken two days with Drake to get to the mines, and only one day full of running to get back. Yet I feel so much better now.

We had barely talked to each other all day. Now, on our way back into town (which we were taking slowly), I told him everything that happened with Drake. He then explained to me how he found me.

"Well, the first morning you were gone, you obviously didn't show up for fishing so I knew something was wrong. I went to your house and didn't find anything. I figured maybe you were sick or something and in the hospital with Dahra. So on my way there, I ran into some kid, and he was all bloody." He shuddered at the memory. "So of course I completely freaked. I was all 'How long have you been like this? Who did this? What happened?' and all he said was 'Drake…'." Quinn looked away.

"What happened then?" I pushed him on as we walked into the plaza, heading across towards the house where Sam was staying.

"Then…then he died."

"Oh."

"Yeah. Continuing, I went back to your house and just kind of stood in the backyard for a while. I have no idea why. Then, in the alley, I heard moaning. So I walked back there, and another bleeding-whipped- kid was lying back there. He said 'Quinn! He went in there! He went in there and…' then he…died too." He swallowed before saying the word 'died'."

"Drake killed two kids before he kidnapped me?"

Quinn nodded. "So anyways, I thought about where he might take you. And the mine shaft was the only place that came to mind, so I thought, what other choice do I have? And I immediately left. Finally, I guess just by luck, I found you out there. And here we are." He finished.

"Thank you so much." I said. "I would have died I there."

He just sighed. Eventually, we made it to Sam's temporary house. Quinn just opened the door and walked right in. Quinn said, "Wait here," and walked upstairs. I walked into the living room and sat on one of the couches. I picked up a very old magazine that was still on the coffee table and started to read it. Eventually Quinn came back down the stairs with a stumbling Sam behind him. I dropped the magazine, startled, and stood up.

Sam's hair was all ruffled, and he only wore a pair of jeans. His eyes were foggy with sleep, so basically you could tell Quinn had just woken him up. I tried to hide the blush in my cheeks.

"Hey, Redd." He slurred.

"Um, Sam, I could come back later-" I stuttered. Even though it was about one in the afternoon.

Quinn laughed. "He needed to wake up anyways."

Sam gave him a hard stare. "So what's going on exactly?" he asked, and we all sat down in the living room. After everybody got comfortable, I immediately shot into the story. Sam laughed at the part when I threatened Drake, then when Quinn and I both went silent; he shut up and said "Sorry."

I finished with the part about Quinn and me running all the way back. I searched Sam's face for a reaction, but he just looked like he hadn't been paying attention. Suddenly, he said, "Okay then. So Drake's probably going to come here now. Fun." I felt bad, but what else was I supposed to do? Sam raised his head and looked at me.

"Sorry?" I said like a question.

"You don't have to apologize. We should be prepared for anything though, just in case he does come back to get you." Then the back door swung open.


	7. Chapter 7

**As always, thanks for reviewing **** that's getting a little boring, so im gonna CHANGE IT UUUUUP! Here we go….i don't own gone or Sam or any of those lovely characters besides Redd and Shell and Frog and some other people to come…WOOHOO a disclaimer :D **

**Oh yeah, and you MIGHT find out why drake wants redd in this chapter…**

**Or I might keep u waiting for 8000 more chapters so u keep reading JK JK JK**

Sam immediately stood, his palms raised toward the door, and angry expression on his face. I jumped about thirty feet in the air and scrambled to hide behind Quinn, who had also jumped (but only about twenty feet), and was now behind the couch. Realizing what he was doing, he had a slightly embarrassed expression, but I didn't really think he could do anything against Drake anyways.

Sam almost burned a hole through her. It was just her. Not Drake. Quinn and I stood up quickly, and Sam lowered his palms. We all got ready to face the whirlwind of anger that had thrown open that door.

"Astrid! I almost killed you!" Sam yelled, a few other nice words following those.

"Well, maybe that would have been better! You've just been ignoring me anyways!" Astrid said.

Sam raised his eyebrows. "Do I need to know what you're talking about? Can you leave and come back?"

I was surprised about how annoyed he sounded. "No Sam. This can't be ignored any longer! We agreed we would have group of leaders. Not just Sam. A group of people, Sam. A group." She was trying very hard to keep calm. Once she saw me, she scowled and I gave a small, awkward wave. Another scowl. Quinn was trying very hard not to crack up.

Sam rolled his eyes. "I'm sorry okay?"  
>"You can't make any decisions by yourself anymore!" The argument was getting even more heated.<p>

"What'd you do this time, brah?" Quinn interrupted. I almost smacked my forehead. Nice timing.

Astrid's eyes were like ice picks as she turned to look at Quinn. "Seriously?" Sam asked.

"Seriously."

"I decided to talk to Caine." Sam admitted.

"Caine?" I burst out.

"Maybe we should leave…" Quinn muttered.

"Don't leave! I mean…it's nothing. We aren't fighting." Sam argued.

Astrid went on, ignoring the last few comments. Quinn and I stood standing. I honestly didn't want to miss any of this. "Why did you want to talk to Caine? Why didn't you come to the council first before making a plan and _almost_ carrying it out?"

"I don't know what's going on with him. I feel…out of it, you know?" Sam said.

"Fine," Astrid replied, smoothing her voice and hair until she looked back to normal. "We should go up to Coates. Just let the council come up with a plan okay? We'll keep you…updated."

"Okay," Sam said. "Bye."

"Bye, sorry about all of that." She apologized, looking into my eyes. Then, Sam went over to Astrid, kissed her on the cheek, and she left. All right before my eyes. I'm scarred for life.

It was the morning after we had gotten back to Perdido Beach. It was decided that I spend the night at Sam's house, but he was still asleep as I got ready for fishing. That's all I wanted to do, fish. Does Drake want my fish?

I pulled on a pair of jeans and a gray striped tank-top that Astrid had left me to wear. Earlier, I had taken a shower and brushed my hair so it was straight. Looking in the mirror, I saw a version of myself that looked somewhat healthy. It made me feel good.

When I was finally ready, I stumbled down the stairs to get out the front door. Quinn was supposed to meet me outside the house so that I didn't have to risk getting captured again by walking alone. He was right outside the house, sitting cross-legged in a pair of light colored jeans with a plain purple t-shirt on top. We both had on our rubber black fishing boots, which made loud squeaking noises when we walked.

"You ready?" I asked.

"Yeah." He sighed.

I raised my eyebrows and tilted my head to the side. "What's wrong?"  
>"What? Nothing!"<p>

"Don't lie and just tell me. I can read you like a book, honey." I said with a sarcastic smile.

"I don't know. I have a feeling that Drake's somewhere nearby. Like he's lurking around laughing at us." He admitted.

"Me too! And you know something bad is going to happen if Sam goes to see Caine right?" I said a little too loudly.

"Yes! I was thinking that the entire time yesterday at Sam's."

"They're probably going to take a few people with them to Coates. Not me though. Even if they did pick me, I wouldn't go. I hate that place, especially Diana. She gives me the creeps." I responded.

"She is a little creepy, with her whole power reading thing." Quinn muttered, looking at the passing houses that had been damaged by who-knows-what.

"Has she ever read you?" I asked.

"No, my power's fishing." He said with a sad smile.

"I want to be read." I said sarcastically.

"Hey, maybe you do have a power. Maybe you're, like, a six bar."

"I wish."

After that, we broke into a short silence. We were almost to the dock, and I could just make out the figures of our fishing crew waiting for us at the end of the street.

"Actually, she's a seven." I heard whispered in my ear, just before a slithery tentacle wrapped around my throat.


End file.
